China reports 6.8% GDP growth in first half of 2018

Updated:
Jul 16,2018 3:02 PM
cgtn.com

China’s GDP in the first half of this year (H1) saw a 6.8 percent year-on-year growth to 41.9 trillion yuan ($6.27 trillion), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on July 16.

“Generally speaking, the national economy in H1 maintained the momentum of steady and sound development with increased favorable conditions to support the economy toward high-quality development,” said NBS spokesman Mao Shengyong.

China’s economy is stable with an upgraded industrial structure, growing innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as wider use of green energy, amid increasingly complicated domestic and overseas situation, Mao told CGTN.

In the second quarter, the country’s GDP rose 6.7 percent year-on-year, slightly lower from 6.8 percent in the first quarter, NBS data showed.

As an important economic indicator, China’s value-added industrial output expanded 6.7 percent year-on-year in H1, 0.2 percentage points lower than that recorded from January to May, NBS data showed.

Industrial output is used to measure the activity of certain large enterprises with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan. Industrial output of state-holding enterprises and shareholding firms was up 6.1 percent in June, and that of foreign-funded enterprises increased 5.4 percent.

Steady employment in June

China’s job market remained stable in June with the unemployment rate in urban areas at a relatively low level of 4.8 percent, unchanged from the level in May and down 0.1 percentage point from June last year, NBS data showed.

Starting from April this year, the NBS has regularly released the monthly unemployment rate in urban areas to help the government improve macro-control and provide information for formulating employment policies.

Fixed-asset investment up 6 percent

China’s fixed-asset investment expanded six percent in H1 compared to the same period of last year, NBS data showed. Total fixed-asset investment stood at about 29.7 trillion yuan ($4.44 trillion).